A CATALOGUE,

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL,

OF

EARLY ENGLISH LITERATURE;

FORMING A

PORTION OF THE LIBRARY

AT

BRIDGEWATER HOUSE,

THE PROPERTY OF

THE RT. HON. LORD FRANCIS EGERTON, M. P.

BY J. PAYNE COLLIER, F. S. A.

LONDON:

THOMAS RODD, GREAT NEWPORT STREET.

MDCCCXXXVII.

F. SHOBERL, JUN., LEICESTER STREET, LEICESTER SQUARE.

PREFACE.

THE Library, a small portion only of which is included in the following Catalogue, was originally formed by Sir Thomas Egerton, Baron Ellesmere, who was made Keeper of the Great Seal by Queen Elizabeth, and Lord High Chancellor of England by King James I. His Lordship is well known to have been an enlightened and munificent patron of literature. Some of the books came into his possession from the Countess of Derby, whom he married in 1600, whose first husband, Sir John Wolley, appears also to have been a liberal encourager of learning.

Baron Ellesmere was created Viscount Brackley shortly before his death in 1616, and his son was raised to the dignity of Earl of Bridgewater in the following year. Many of the rarer productions enumerated in the following pages were collected and carefully preserved by the latter, and his affection for his books is testified by his marks and notes in most of the volumes which he added to the collection. The Library was augmented at later dates by the successive Earls and Dukes of Bridgewater, until it devolved into the hands of the present possessor, by whose direction and at whose expense this Catalogue has been prepared and printed.